Julia Gillard TikTok interview: former PM says gender equality combat should ‘flip anger into motion’ | TikTok

A year ago, former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech received new life after becoming a viral dance meme on TikTok during the first wave of Covid-19 bans.

Now, the woman who created the trend, Abbey Hansen, interviewed her political muse live on TikTok to celebrate Women’s History Month.

Gillard spoke from London about the challenges women around the world are facing, how she felt when she gave her misogyny speech in 2012 and was excited about a new generation of feminists.

“One of the things that gives me hope is to watch your generation of women step forward with so much enthusiasm and energy.”

When asked what she would have said at the March 4th judicial protests earlier this month, which she missed because she traveled to London, she said, “I would have said I would have put that anger into action.

Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Abbey Hansen on Tiktok. Photo: TikTok

“This shift in culture in Parliament and beyond to ensure that we live in a world where women are safe and can go their own way without gender barriers requires ongoing efforts.

“So it’s absolutely fantastic to go to a march, but you have to put up with this hassle and put it into practice every day.”

Gillard said she faced “a lot of gender-based abuse and sexism” during her time in parliament but said she has no regrets getting into politics.

“I would absolutely have made that decision again. I think feminism is coming in waves and I can really feel another great wave gathering made up of activism in our own country and around the world. “

TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has invested in more of these big-name events to promote the platform’s lucrative live streaming capabilities – a service currently primarily used to host the D’Amelio sisters or others on the internet watching famous teenagers idly doing their makeup and answering questions from fans.

TikToker, musician and midwife Abbey Hansen has been engaging young people in Australian politics for a year. And she did it for the most part without her audience realizing it.

It all started back in March last year when Hansen was nervous, bored and without toilet paper and re-mixed the Prime Minister’s Covid-19 press conferences with popular Tiktok songs.

“I was just doing funny political TikToks about Scott Morrison … and after doing a few of them I decided to target someone I admire, Julia Gillard,” she said.

So Hansen grabbed the Doja Cat song Boss Bitch, ripped the audio of Gillard’s misogyny speech off YouTube, and filmed herself lip-syncing the opening lines.

“I did it on a whim in five or ten minutes. And yes, then it just started. “

The video quickly drew more than 1.5 million views.

“I started reading some of the comments and people were really unaware of some of the things Julia Gillard did when she was Prime Minister,” she said. “I was beginning to realize that, ‘Oh, this is really a great way to bring some ideas about politics and other topics to younger audiences, or people who normally haven’t thought about politics before and why, that is so important

“I think a lot has to do with the fact that the Covid pandemic was just so unprecedented. So everyone really had their eyes on the news … I feel like a new audience was coming into politics at that time, and I wanted to add to the conversation in a way that I thought was possible, which was those humorous TikToks do . ”

In a statement by TikTok to Guardian Australia, Gillard described Hansen’s original video as a “positive message of empowerment”.

“The creative way she reinvented my speech on TikTok opened a conversation with a new generation about how we can inspire them to take up leadership roles and remove the barriers that are currently standing in their way,” she said.

Before the interview, Hansen said she was nervous about meeting her idol.

“And it was just very surreal. As if I couldn’t believe it’s almost a year [of posting the video]… I say, ‘Oh my god, we’ve really come full circle with this,’ ”she said.